Violinist, composer, born
in Oldenburg, [West] Germany, 6 Nov 1953. Lipsky was raised in Switzerland,
where he studied violin at the Conservatoire de Winterthur and played
during his teens in both classical and fusion-jazz styles. He continued
his training after 1974 in New York with Ivan Galamian, teacher at the
Juilliard School of Music, and with Itzhak Perlman at the Brooklyn Conservatory
of Music, then moved in 1981 to Montreal.

Lipsky's career there would
take many forms - concert artist in both jazz and classical music, teacher
at colleges and universities locally and in Trois-Rivières, composer
of music for film and TV, studio musician - thus bringing him a relatively
high profile in Quebec's musical community. Typically, his own ensembles
have mixed jazz and classical influences in varying balance, with elements
of World Music for additional colour.

He formed his first band,
the Jean-Luc-Ponty-esque Mélosphère, in 1982 with musicians
from Quebec City. Reconstituted in Montreal with James Gelfand,
Jim Hillman, saxophoniste Simon Stone and others, the septet
made the LP Melosphere (Jazzimage) in 1986 and appeared at the
Montreux International Jazz Festival in 1987. Mélosphère
overlapped in 1988 with Lipsky's second band, Éclectique Électrique,
better known as Unclassified, with Karen Young, who has often participated
in the violinist's projects. A CD, Unclassified, was issued by
Amplitude in 1992.

By 1993, however, Lipsky had
formed Tricycle with James Gelfand and Michel Donato; the trio
completed Tricycle (Lost Chart) in 1994 and remained active through
the decade. Meanwhile, another Lipsky ensemble - this one of Canadian,
German and Swiss musicians - recorded Moontide (World Chart) in
1996 and toured Europe in 2000.

Lipsky in turn has recorded
in turn with artists as different as Karen Young (Contre- danse,
Good News on the Crumbling Walls), the New York composer/conductor
Butch Morris (Testament: A Conduction Collection, 1992, New
World-Countercurrents), the Swiss "New Age" harpist Andreas
Vollenweider (Kryptos, 1996, Sony) and several Quebec and European
pop stars.